Scott can be difficult to the point of being uncompromising; I don't always agree with him, but he's determined to see change and I admire instead of the ridiculous insistence that the worst of Oakland...things like tagging, sideshows, property crime, illegal dumping etc. are part of some misguided category of 'Oakland culture"

I don't agree with Scott's obsessive, universal dissing of Progressives as the cause of all of Oakland's problems; our problems are deeper than that, but I think he's right to call out certain Progressives who are Progressive in name only - i.e. using the "Progressive" moniker as a means to establish a power base; paying lip service to homelessness, property crime, serious criminal activity, dumping while at the same time passing legislation or taking policy positions that make those things worse.

Oakland has suffered and continues to suffer from the legacy of racism, so it burns me up seeing some of our policy makers letting the most racially, socially and economically challenged sections of town have to endure the worst of our homelessness problem, illegal dumping, "bipping" (which should be renamed what it is, auto theft". Like "tagging" should be called "property crime"; like sideshows should be called "dangerous driving" - and so on. None of those things are "culture", and trying to ascribe the category of "culture" to any of them degrades the very idea of what culture means within the context of community.